East Charlotte’s Mazuera Arias was a ‘dreamer.’ How he beat incumbent in primary
J.D. Mazuera Arias can’t help but feel sentimental when he visits the strip mall at the corner of Monroe Road and Conference Drive in east Charlotte.
He called the spot home for 12 years when it was Silver Oaks Apartments. That was before the property owner demolished the complex to make way for new retail space.
Hundreds were displaced during the 2013 holiday season. Their homes would eventually be replaced by what is now a brewery, coffee shop and dog groomer. Mazuera Arias said he and his neighbors fell victim to “the Charlotte way” of doing politics: lending an ear to developers and private interests over longtime working-class residents.
Mazuera Arias, 27, is slated to be the youngest member of City Council this year after winning a tight Democratic primary race against District 5 incumbent Marjorie Molina. He’s running unopposed on the November ballot and would become the first Latino councilmember.
“I’ve been a strong advocate and believer that policy should be written by those who are impacted by it the most,” Mazuera Arias said. “I am and will always be people-first.”
From dreamer to council member
Mazuera Arias remembers sitting on the couch as a high school student, dismayed by the college application process.
He was a “dreamer” — an undocumented immigrant who came to the country as a child and was protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Because he wasn’t a citizen, though, he lacked resources that could open doors for him like federal student loans.
“A lot of my classmates were also facing the same struggles, finding out what it meant to be undocumented and the limitations that brought to pursuing a higher level of education,” Mazuera Arias said.
District 5 consists of predominantly Black and immigrant residents.
His family moved from Colombia when he was less than a year old. They worked long hours to make ends meet — his mom as an advocate for Latino small businesses and his dad as a construction worker.
Neither parent spoke English, so Mazuera Arias became their de facto translator and legal expert at a young age. He grew up quickly, he said.
As Mazuera Arias ruminated on his situation one day, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont appeared on his TV screen, pointing his finger in the air and declaring that undocumented students like him deserved access to an education.
That sparked his interest in politics.
In his first political role, he volunteered for Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. He later earned a degree in political science from Queens University as a Golden Door Scholar, a program designed to support undocumented and dreamer students.
In 2020 he moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute public policy fellow, then for the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society program. He also had a short stint working for New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office, where he helped develop and advocate for comprehensive immigration, fair housing and environmental policies, he said.
His experience makes him “the perfect candidate” for council, said Wendy Mateo-Pascual, the co-founder of the Camino Community Center and a longtime leader in community-based Latino organizations.
Council failed to speak up about recent threats facing the immigrant community, Mateo-Pascual said, including the controversial immigration enforcement bill requiring sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The city also shuttered its immigration integration office created as a recommendation from an immigration task force she participated in.
“Having J.D. is to have a voice at the table that will bring the Latinos’ issues as a priority to the city council,” Mateo-Pascual said. “It’s about representation and what it means to have a Latino on the city council, what it means to have a young person on the city council.”
Mazuera Arias became a naturalized citizen in 2021 and returned to east Charlotte after obtaining a master’s degree in public administration from New York University.
“You would think at my age, and seeing the growing demographics in certain areas, that I would have moved to South End, Noda or Plaza Midwood,” Mazuera Arias said. “But I chose to come back to live in east Charlotte because I love our culture.”
Building a platform for the people
Mazuera Arias had four years of development to catch up on and wanted to gauge how the community that raised him was feeling.
He purchased a notebook — now on its second iteration — and set out to meet with folks from all walks of life: apathetic voters, small business owners, undocumented immigrants, community activists, corporate leaders, developers. By the time he launched his campaign, Mazuera Arias had already met with more than 150 people, he said.
Residents “overwhelmingly” felt they were being left behind by the city’s growth, he said.
“If the majority of people I spoke to were content with their current representation, I wouldn’t have run,” Mazuera Arias said. ”But that’s not what I got.”
He asked each person about their wants, needs, aspirations and fears living in the city, then extracted common themes from which he would build his platform.
Emma Allen called this his “listening tour,” and it’s how she came to support his candidacy. He visited her State Farm office several times when she wasn’t there and was persistent in his efforts to meet with her.
When they finally sat down, Allen found Mazuera Arias had “a clear heart for the people.”
“I have been very engaged politically for 30 years in Charlotte, and what I typically find is that the candidate comes and they’re telling me all about them,” Allen said. “He was intuitive enough to find out what was important to me first before I got a chance to ask him more about him.”
The race wouldn’t be easy. Only a small number of challengers have unseated incumbent city council members in the last 20 years, the last time being in 2017. Councilwoman Molina had already served two terms and was looking for a third.
Mazuera Arias eked out a razor-thin win by less than 40 votes. A recount affirmed his victory.
What will J.D. Mazuera Arias prioritize on council?
While on the campaign trail, Mazuera Arias said opponents characterized him as anti-development and anti-business. That’s not true, he said, but he does believe council should be more discerning about development approvals.
He supports “incremental development.”
“It means not rubber stamping everything that comes across the dais. It means asking the hard questions: How does this benefit the community? And most importantly, it means bringing the community into the decision making process,” Mazuera Arias said.
He doesn’t want to be seen as a disruptor, either. But he will speak up when he believes his constituents are getting slighted.
Mazuera Arias was one of few candidates who came out against the tax referendum that would overhaul the city’s transportation system. The plan might benefit the city as a whole, but he doesn’t feel it helps east Charlotte residents, he said. And he didn’t like that the plan had largely left public safety out of the discussion.
Among his more immediate priorities, Mazuera Arias said he wants to create a “people’s cabinet” of District 5 residents that will help advise him on decisions to ensure his constituents are represented on matters that impact them. Residents should feel a sense of ownership over how their community develops, he said.
He also wants to establish a tracker for taxpayer dollars that shows how money is being spent and measures whether it is accomplishing what it was intended to do. And he wants to focus attention on public safety and make mental health a key part of those discussions.
As Mazuera Arias prepares to take office — which happens in December after the general election — his family is still processing what this moment means.
He grew up in poverty and was no stranger to crime in the area. He was queer, undocumented and spoke English as a second language.
“I wasn’t supposed to make it out. I think that’s where the disbelief in my family comes from,” Mazuera Arias said. “All their sacrifices, everything every immigrant comes to this country for is a better life. And they’re able to see it through their children.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
